My humble opinion is that you should read them in order, with one exception: I think to get a bit of context, you may want to start with Song 100 (which functions more as a summary / epilogue) and then loop back to the beginning. However, there are some sections where chronology is quite important: Songs 13– 14, 22– 23, 28– 29, 69– 70, 96– 98.
Many choose to shuffle their playlists, and this should mostly hold up to that.
NARITA BOY STUCK IN HALL OF MEMORIES SERIES
Sometimes the connection is musical: a muffled preacher tying Godspeed You! Black Emperor’s “Static” to Julien Baker’s “Go Home”, the ending whirl of Neutral Milk Hotel’s “Communist Daughter” becoming the opening guitar riff of Death Cab For Cutie’s “Blacking Out The Friction.” Sometimes it’s thematic: a series of wedding-related entries ( Song 33– 39), two Valentine’s Days multiple years apart ( Song 64 to Song 65), a week devoted to overthinking / authenticity amid the protests of the murder of George Floyd ( Song 72– 80, more or less). Much like a playlist, there’s a certain emotional ordering to it: Almost every entry is somehow connected to the one that precedes it. These are mostly meant to be taken as independent stories, and shouldn’t require any prior knowledge (about the music or myself). But for now, I’m choosing to preserve it exactly as it was, warts and all…give or take the removal of a few stray typos that caught my eye in translation.Ī note on reading. Someday I may take a sledgehammer to this and rework it into something else. I also feel (though, again, I am too close to it) that it gets substantially better as it goes along: While there are early entries I am immensely fond of, I feel it wasn’t until Day 60 or so that I really settled on the style. I also know that it is, by virtue of memory, prone to wild inaccuracies-the errata alone could fill another 20,000 words. I do know that it covers every year of my life from age 10 and up. Is it a playlist, a creative writing experiment, a short story collection, a 50,000 word memoir? I can’t say I’m still too close to it. The result is rather difficult to pin down. Those weeks, in hindsight, produced some of my favorite pieces. Every week or two I contemplated quitting, certain I had run out of ideas. The longer the project went on, the more complicated these stories became, and the more difficult it became to keep writing. Regardless, the conclusion was the same: By the start of the workday, I would have some song paired with some memory, condensed into 2-4 iPhone-sized notes screenshots, and hit “Post.” There was no ability to edit, and it shows.
Others, I would wake up with absolutely nothing. Sometimes I would have a draft or two saved up from the previous evening, and the morning would be an opportunity to polish. I would wake up before 7am, no exceptions, and write. So for 100 consecutive days, I followed a very particular routine. It would go “until this thing ends.” I assumed that meant two or three weeks. Every morning, 7 days a week, I would share a song and a piece of writing about a memory it recalled. So on March 19 2020, towards the beginning of shelter-in-place, I decided to embark on a challenge via this Twitter thread. Some are great, others embarrassing-all inform who I am. The songs that stick are always entangled with certain times and places. What Is This, And How Am I Supposed To Read It?įor me, music is almost entirely about memory. Note: In addition to being a music-inspired memoir, this is also meant to function as a literal playlist! You can listen along on Spotify, Apple Music, or YouTube.
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